Doomsy’s Do-Gooders and Dregs (2015 – Pt. 1)

OK, I’m going to rev this up again and see how far I get with it.

This is the beginning of my year-end wrap-up, and I’d better get started now because I’ve got a bunch of stuff. The point of this is to cover a lot of items that I’d managed to accumulate over the prior year, but I really didn’t want to include them in a post because I didn’t have much to say at the time.

(A bit of background here: I originally started the whole “Do-Gooders and Dregs” thing over at the Blogger site in 2005, and I did it every year since – with each post or set of posts gradually getting longer and longer, up to the point where we are right now. I took a break in 2012 for reasons that would take too long to explain, but I did it in 2013 and 2014 and I want to do the same thing for this year. Also, this is probably the earliest I’ve ever done this, but as I said, I have a lot to get to, as you’ll see. And this may be the last time that I do this – not that this is anyone’s issue but mine, but it gets to be more and more of a challenge every year.)

Florida AG Pam Bondi, who claimed that (in essence) clerks can decide who should get marriage licenses even though U.S. District Judge Robert L. Hinkle (an early Do-Gooder citation) ruled New Years Day that all Florida clerks are bound by the U.S. Constitution not to enforce Florida’s gay marriage ban (as C&L points out here, Bondi loves marriage so much that she’s on her third one – kind of funny that she places herself in some imagined position of moral authority, then)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Oklahoma Republican Senator Don Barrington for introducing a bill mandating a fine anywhere from $50 to $500 for wearing a hoodie here, presumably in some kind of a response to the Trayvon Martin killing (oh yeah, like that will help)

Do-Gooder of the Year Nominee

The “John Doe” juror on the grand jury that, otherwise, failed to return an indictment against Officer Darren Wilson in the Michael Brown shooting for this (a 58-point lawsuit against Prosecutor Bob McCulloch – at least this person did the right thing)

Do-Gooder of the Year Nominee

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg for this (better late than never, I guess)…

Do-Gooder of the Year Nominee

Dem U.S. House Rep Sean Patrick Maloney, who thus far is the only House politician of either party to call for fellow Rep. Repug Steve Scalise to resign his post as Majority Whip over the revelation that Scalise spoke at a conference for a white supremacist group associated with David Duke (here)

Do-Gooder of the Year Nominee

I once criticized Preston Elliot and Steve Morrison of radio station WMMR in these parts for some political stuff, but they broadcast a show in January where Steve Morrison discussed his bout with prostate cancer with Dr. Mike Cirigliano of UPenn where Morrison (right) was being treated – very helpful and informative, and kudos to Morrison for courageously going public and revealing a lot about his treatment in order to help motivate other people to get checked out…glad he’s cancer free, and best wishes for continued good health

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Former Phillie and Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling for saying that he didn’t get into the Baseball Hall of Fame because he’s a Republican (here – actually, it probably has more to do with the fact that you’re a self-serving douchebag…Schilling would bring infamy to himself again later)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Fix Noise security “expert” Tom McInerney for saying that the slaughter at the Charlie Hebdo newspaper in Paris that killed 12, including 4 editorial cartoonists, was due to “political correctness” here (uh, no – it was due to a lot of other things…murderous, cowardly terroristic rage more than anything else I would say)

Do-Gooder of the Year Nominee

Ezra Klein for writing this in response to the Charlie Hebdo attack (and for re-tweeting one of their most famous cartoons, as noted here)…

Dregs of the Year Nominees

The idiots who showed up at Disney parks without the proper vaccinations and ended up getting measles, which they of course then spread to Lord knows how many others, as noted here

Dregs of the Year Nominees

The alleged 30 U.S. House “Democrats” who voted to gut financial reform here (yeah, just keep pulling this crap and then keep losing elections because your base keeps sitting on its hands on Election Day – later, rinse, repeat)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

And picking right up where he left off last year, CNN’s Don Lemon asked Muslim human rights lawyer Arsaln Iftikar if he supported ISIS here, in a follow-up interview to the horrific Charlie Hebdo murders (How about, in response, if somebody asks Lemon if he supports Mumia Abu-Jamal? That way, Lemon will get an idea of what it’s like to be asked a really stupid question)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

I honestly don’t know who Catholic League President Bill Donahue thinks he still speaks for at this point, but as noted here, he actually blamed Charlie Hebdo for the January massacre that killed 12 people at the hands of jihadist cowards, saying that the magazine “perverts freedom” in its drawings associated with the prophet Muhammad that led to the killings – some of the drawings do go a bit far, but not as far as Donahue himself goes with his own brand of intolerance

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Horrible Republican Wisconsin U.S. Senator Ron Johnson for this (still can’t believe voters elected him over Russ Feingold, but this is where we are – they should correct that in 2016 as soon as possible)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Another year and still more potentially prosecutorial idiocy from Governor Bully – as noted here, he used EZ Pass information to go after late Dem U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg; the problem is that E-ZPass records can be obtained only with a civil court order or criminal subpoena (sooo, what exactly was it that Lautenberg supposed did wrong, aside from standing up to NJ’s gubernatorial blowhard of course?)

And oh yeah, Christie helped give a company owned by Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones the contract for running the observation deck of the World Trade Center, according to this report (wonder if that had anything to do with that ultra-weird hug Christie gave Jones when the Cowboys beat Detroit in an NFL playoff game?)

Do-Gooders of the Year Nominees

Everyone who participated in the January 11th marches against terrorism in Paris and elsewhere around the world in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo slaughter (by some accounts, about 3.7 million total – here)

Do-Gooders of the Year Nominee

Lassana Bathily, a 24-year-old Muslim from Mali, who worked in a French store (possibly a market of some kind) in the neighborhood of Porte de Vincennes and managed to save 15 customers from the murdering radical Islamist cowards who killed the people at Charlie Hebdo and would have killed the store customers also had Bathily not thought quickly and hid his customers in the store freezer (here – nicely done)

The “And I Bet She STILL Threw Her Cell Phone At Them Anyway” Citation of the Year

In possibly the most hyperbolic statement of 2015, supermodel (as opposed to regular, drop-dead-gorgeous model I guess) Naomi Campbell said here that she “owed her life to gay men” (speaking about fashion sense I realize, but probably still a bit over the top)

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Columnist Ron Lieber of the New York Times for this (a truly epic takedown by kos)

Do-Gooders of the Year Nominees

The customers of the Philly pizza shop who donated $1 for pizza slices for the homeless here…

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Former Repug U.S. House Rep Joe Walsh for calling for ISIS-style beheadings here (seriously, this man is mentally ill)…

Do-Gooders of the Year Nominees

Probably not much of a stretch here given the largely French Canadian population in Quebec, but still, credit where it’s due to the Montreal Canadiens hockey team for playing La Marseillaise as a tribute to France in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo tragedy here

Dregs of the Year Nominee

Pastor Ray Chavez of New Hope Ministries in Lakewood, Colorado, who brought the funeral of Vanessa Collier to a halt when he learned that Collier was a lesbian (here)…Chavez also wouldn’t refund the money for the service to the family (somehow I must have missed that religion class where I learned that God says that it’s OK to punish someone for an “alternative lifestyle” after they’re dead – don’t know what happened to attendance at Lakewood services after this, but I’m sure it dropped off…it should have anyway)